Dealing with a chronic painful condition is difficult – that’s why you are here, searching for a solution. We are here to tell you that obtaining Pain Relief without drugs IS possible!
How Do You Relieve Pain?
Everyone’s experience of pain, and their pain journey is different. A small number of people can live and function with quite serious levels of pain. They groan and struggle, but once they are “up and about” they feel they can continue with their day.
Why should people be putting up with this kind of chronic pain, without making a concerted effort to solve the underlying causes?
Well, the truth is that a lot of people have simply given up. They have attended years of treatments from a wide variety of professionals, and while they might have had some initial success, their problem has persisted and remains with them.
Nobody seems to care, right?
Daily Routines Helping Pain Recovery
I was always an advocate of exercise and movement – that goes without saying! Over the last few years, the COVID19 epidemic has changed our lives in many ways, mostly for the worst. But I think there are positives we can take.
Human nature is such that when we are told we cannot do something we rally against that idea. Rolling lock-downs are one way to anger and frustrate the masses. Here in Ireland we had one of the severest lock-downs internationally. We had 2km rules meaning we could not travel 2km from our homes. This caused mass anger and fear throughout our communities. People really struggled with work life balance!
To turn a negative to positive, we saw huge amounts of people out walking and exercising. The parks and beaches were full of people exercising. For a lot of people this was their first time out walking on a regular basis, some for exercise and some simply because they were told not to. As I said people rally against authority when told they cannot do something. In Ireland, we have a long history of this. Either way it has led to a better, fitter and healthier people. Exercise is free, why not embrace it?
Benefits Of Walking
There is a tendency to overlook walking as a workout. But as your fitness increases huge benefits can be gained. There are a lot of positives and remember walking is free
- Improve Circulation, Fitness and Heart Strength
- Improve Posture
- Walk Taller and Look Physically More Attractive
- Reduce Stiffness and Joint Pain
- Boost Your Mood and Feeling Of Well-Being
- Lose Weight and Maintain A Healthy Weight
- Strengthen Muscles and ligaments
- Improve Sleep
- Support Your Joints
- Improve Pain from Osteoarthritis
Weight Loss
Let’s focus a bit more on walking being helpful to maintain or lose weight. It is particularly good at helping lose belly fat. This fat that sits just under the skin (subcutaneous fat) also surrounds your organs (visceral fat – the bad stuff). This can cause huge damage to your organs functioning abilities. It also plays a huge role in the inflammation in your body and can amplify musculoskeletal pain. Regardless of your overall weight, having a large amount of belly fat increases your risk of:
- Cardiovascular disease such as heart attack or stroke
- Diabetes
- Colorectal Cancer
- Sleep Apnea
- Premature death from any cause
- High blood pressure
Walking needs to be part of your daily routine – full stop!
How Much Exercise Is Good For Pain Relief?
You don’t need to start walking like an Olympic athlete – to get results. Just take it slow at the start, and if you experience any discomfort, breathlessness, or even a stitch in your side – ease off the pace, and even stop completely. Pain Relief isn’t cheap, or instant! Always have your mobile phone handy to ring someone to pick you up, if you get into any difficulty.
You may find that asking someone to walk with you will help make it a regular activity. Maybe rescue a dog from a shelter (only if you can care properly for her, and not leave her alone for long periods of time!)
For such a simple lifestyle change it can have huge benefits. It really is for everyone. If you like doing something it’s easier to do. You’re more likely to stick at it. All you need is your trainers and the fresh air, and the best form of Pain Relief can be yours!
Multiple Pain Relief Strategies
When people enter our clinics, we advocate a “full spectrum” approach to pain relief. You need to look at lots of different aspects of your life:
- Diet
- Sleep Patterns
- Stress Levels
- Exercise Levels
- Age
- Genetics
Most of all – while we are treating our patients, we are bringing them along the My Pain Kit journey – consisting of:
- Heat Therapy
- Massage
- Movement
- Stretching
- Strengthening
- Cold Therapy
- Bracing / Support
